This sermon emphasizes the profound significance of the titles 'Savior' and 'Redeemer' attributed to Jesus Christ. It delves into the depth of Mary's belief and acceptance of being the mother of the Son of God, highlighting the importance of faith and trust in God's plan. The sermon challenges listeners to truly understand and embrace Jesus as their Savior and Redeemer, acknowledging the need for repentance, forgiveness, and freedom from the slavery of sin through His sacrificial blood.

Now, dear friends, there are certain words which we constantly employ, not only in our Christian worship, but in our parlance, that is, in our ordinary conversations, certain things which we take for granted. Now, one of those words is Savior. It's a very unique term applied throughout literature and history only to one person, Savior, the Lord Jesus. Now, we never understand how comprehensive that word is, but when the revelation first came to Mary that she was going to be the mother of the one and only person who shall be called and who was called the Son of God, when that revelation came, you know, when a lady is, when a girl is expecting a baby, I do not know all the emotions that they go through. There must be a lot of expectancy and a lot of pent-up desires. My babe should be this and my babe should be that, not like the ordinary run-of-the-mill kind of people, but there should be, he should be something special. I'm sure some of these emotions, which as a man I will never know, are very common as an expectancy which only sees fruition in the passage of years. Now, when Mary heard this and she believed it, first she believed it, Luke first chapter and the 45th verse, blessed is she that believed. You see, it was an awesome thing to believe, isn't it? How can you believe that the very Son of God is going to be born, or even for a stranger to believe it? Oh, it is such a profound truth, but to think that I am going to bring forth this Son of God should be something which really blows one's mind. Am I going to bring forth the Son of God? You know, folks, actually Christmas ought to fill us with great wonder. We have taken the wonder out of Christmas. We have just made it a kind of symbolic thing represented by a number of lights. But the light of the world, to think that without Jesus, this world would have been such a dark and darkened place. And my life would have been so dark, no expected, no expectation of anything better, such a dark outlook, how Jesus brings hope. You see, as I was going through some examination, physical examination last week, the lady who was examining me when I was, I mean, it was an echocardiogram, and the lady said, I do not know how people live without faith. Yes, living without faith must be rather like the experience of one. You know, one of my professors defined a philosopher in this fashion. He said a philosopher is one who is trying to find a black cat in a darkened room. A blind man trying to find a black cat in a darkened room. That's how he defined a philosopher. Anyway, that would have been our plight as well. Without the light of the world, hope. You see, one has to be very mindful of those that are losing their hope. With the collapse of banks and the loss of steady jobs and the inability to pay the bills, you know, it is proving to be a little too much for many people. And if you are not, and if I am not hard-pressed enough enough to be able to fit into their shoes, yet Christian compassion and burden must make us think about those that have no hope whatever, who have given up hope. But look at Mary, 47th verse, 46 and 47. Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. She didn't get into a kind of grave quandary. What am I to do? What am I to expect? What is this message? How am I going to cope with this situation? How am I going to be able to bring up the Son of God? Well, she didn't get into that kind of self-doubt. You see, self-doubt can be very crippling. While faith lifts us, self-doubt, you know, there are many good causes to doubt ourselves. Many reasons. We see how unsteady our minds can be, and how shaky our faith can be. And so we can begin to feel a kind of self-doubt. But I don't see that self-doubt in Mary, faced before such a stupendous task and expectation. She could handle it. She could measure up to it. And she said, My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. She took it. She took it all. My spirit has rejoiced. There's no doubt about it. There is no fear anywhere. My spirit has rejoiced in my Savior, God my Savior. Now, this was the expectation that Christ was going to come. This was the expectation of ages and of prophecy. And to think that all this is going to be culminated in the birth of my Son, the Savior. You see, today there's no Savior. There are only conjecturers, you know, people trying to fiddle their way through the fire. You can't fiddle your way through a fire. Fires cannot be put out with fiddling. The whole narrow whether he rejoiced or whether he thought he was a kind of firefighter while he played his fiddle while Rome burned. I don't know. But I see some of our politicians fiddling away while the world is burning, while the nation is suffering. Now, my dear people, here, God my Savior, to what extent do you take this Savior? To what extent do you think he is trustworthy, worthy of all your trust? You see, if there was an investment which can be 100% trusted to give a return of 15%, I suppose everybody would rush to invest in that investment back. Here's somebody who is prepared to give us a return of 15, guarantee 15%. And, you know, there's no such guarantee. There's no such investment. But the investment in the bank of heaven is a sure investment. We must know that because Jesus said, gather not for yourselves riches on earth, where moth and rust do corrupt and thieves break forth and steal. You know, with powerful drills, they are getting into the strongest safes. Thieves break forth and steal. For but rather gather for yourselves riches in heaven. Riches in heaven. And the Lord Jesus Christ also said, he that giveth farm houses or lands, father or mother, for my sake, shall receive a hundredfold. My dear friends, we can invest with a certainty in this bank of heaven. But you know how people can be so niggardly and fearful you know, they can say, hey, I can't trust this bank. I can't trust this savior. I can only tentatively trust him. No, we see nothing of that in Mary's rejoicing. My spirit hath rejoiced in God, my savior. If you turn to John 4 chapter, we see the strangers arriving at this great conclusion. Now the words of a very wicked woman in town had attracted these people to Jesus. And now after hearing Jesus, 41st verse, and many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman, now we believe not because of your saying, for we have heard him ourselves. And know that this is indeed the Christ, the savior of the world. We have heard him ourselves. That's why when people get so enthused and say, yes, we'll follow the Lord and all that, I say, no, you have to hear him yourself. My sheep hear my voice. You must go and touch him yourself. Your spirit must be awakened. You know, otherwise we can make it a system, a nice church, nice church service, everything well organized, and it becomes a system. And soon it becomes a formality. And then it becomes a tradition, a lifeless tradition. But we don't want that. We have heard him ourselves. Now this is exactly what we need to do. As we have to hand over to a next generation and a next generation, we can't be telling him, I heard him. That's all right. But we have to tell them, you have to hear him yourselves, not just take it up like a parrot. You have to hear him yourselves. You know, to convince some people who are so taken up with the system, the religious organization, they become pickled in that organization, and they're so dead and pickled that for them to say, yeah, for me to hear, you want me to hear his voice? No. My pastor will do it for me. Or my bishop will do it for me. No, no, no. We have heard him ourselves. And we know. And what did they say? 42nd verse, John 4, 42, for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. What an understanding was given to these Samaritans of Sychar. We know you know, we should be able to present Jesus in this fashion that men will taste him for themselves. You see, it's not by proxy. It's not a second hand handover to us. We know ourselves. We have heard him ourselves. This is the thing that my father emphasized very much. Go to God. He will speak to you. You see, if it was all okay, you just rely on me. That's not good enough. No, no, no. We have to hear his voice. We know that this is the Savior of the world. See, if the Christian church had that conviction, this is the Savior of the world. You know, a judge is put up for confirmation. And one of the things, one of his judgments was that it was inappropriate to pray in the name of Jesus in one of the state legislations, houses in the state. So one of our states has been forbidden to pray in the name of Jesus in the usual prayer with which the house begins its daily work. But the same man in another judgment said it's okay to pray in the name of Allah. It's a generic name. So it's it is okay to pray in the name of Allah. So are we going to have people pray? Jesus said, if you ask anything in my name, see, don't discredit. Don't devalue the name of Jesus. Don't put it ambiguously. Prayer in the name of Jesus has weight in heaven. But see, friends, we are not firm in our own convictions. We are easily washed out. Somebody says, okay, Buddha, Buddha never claimed to be God. Buddha was a Hindu to begin with. Now, what a sad thing that Christianity has lost its heart, lost its vitality, lost the central truth. God, my savior. You know, in Acts, the fifth chapter and the 31st verse, you have the scripture which Peter, Acts 5 and verse 31. From verse 30, please. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him has God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. That's the savior, savior from sin, savior to give repentance. You know, the very word repentance has become a kind of alien word. People don't know how to repent. What a sad thing. If you have stamped on somebody's toe, I find nowadays with all the jostling and the huzzle there is in any place of business and so on, some people have lost the grace to turn around and say, we are sorry. I'm sorry. Why not? I am amazed. So many people find it so hard when they have stamped on somebody's toe. Can't you say sorry? And you can imagine with such a mindset, they feel they owe nothing to God. They don't owe obedience to God. They can go roughshod over his word. They can do anything. They can break their vows. They can break their marriage vows. They can do anything and not even say sorry. You know, my dear friends, that's a very sad thing. The savior, him has God raised up to be a savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. Now, if we had repentance and forgiveness of sins in America or anywhere in the world, there will be a great transformation. Repentance is going to make you a man who will rebound. Say, I've done nothing for God. I've only grieved God. I have broken his commandments. I've been like a dead fish carried with the current, with my belly up. Now, what shall I do for Jesus? That's a repentance, a turning around. You know, my dear friends, that this morning, to think that there would be millions of people in this country as well as I do, other countries who go to worship Jesus, and yet they don't see in him the savior who calls for repentance, who brings repentance and forgiveness of sins. The matter is settled. You're forgiven. You're not going and mumbling all the time, forgive us, forgive us, forgive us. No, you're forgiven. I have forgiven you to give you forgiveness. Yes, I was raised from the dead. So, my dear friends, none of us should have any guilt on our conscience, because where there is repentance and forgiveness, there can be no guilt, no doubt, no fear. But alas, think of that. You know, I have not the time now to dwell on another word which is very important, with which we refer to our Lord again and again, Redeemer. We say, He has redeemed me. You know, in the New Testament, we don't see that particular word. It had a great connotation for the people who were 430 years in Egyptian slavery. Say, for instance, if one of us was a slave for, say, a week, week's time. Suppose you're a slave. You were treated like a dog. You know, you put out a plate full of food before a dog, and somebody would just thrust a dirty plate towards you. Once in the morning, maybe at night, and you were a slave, and suddenly you're freed, and you can eat what you want, you can do what you please, and you find that you are not under the whip of the slave master, you would say you would have a different connotation for the word Redeemer. Oh, who is this that has redeemed me from my slavery? You know, my friends, the Bible says, He that sinneth is the servant of sin. You know, one of the sins which has become universal today is lying. People think nothing of speaking a lie. What is this? How can your tongue speak lies? It's an abomination to God. Now, Redeemer, you see, that's a kind of slavery, slavery to sin, slavery to lying. Now, I was told that some fellows who are training to become preachers are universally in one seminary or Bible school. So many of them were addicted to pornographic sites, pornographic sites, and they were going to be preachers and pastors. And you can imagine what kind of slavery that begets. A slave trying to help other slaves get into greater slavery. Now, that's an awful thing. But a Redeemer, you know, the Bible refers to in 19th Psalm and the 14th verse, I'll just refer to two scriptures to redeem Psalm 19 and verse. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. You redeemed me that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart should be acceptable to you. I have found redemption. O Lord, my Redeemer, let them be acceptable to you. And Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 7, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood. My dear friends, the redemption through his blood. You know, when the blood of Jesus Christ is mentioned, the demon-possessed tremble. And sometimes they say, we are burning, we are burning. They almost feel they are put into the fires of hell. The blood of Jesus. We don't make much of the blood of Jesus today. You know, purchased by the blood, redeemed by the blood. Redeemer. He redeemed me out of slavery by his shed blood. What a marvelous Savior. So my dear friends, we ought to be enjoying this redemption. It's freedom from slavery. And we should be rejoicing in Christ, our Savior. Let us pray. Loving Father, how easily we talk and mouth these precious words. Christ, my Savior. Christ, my Redeemer. Oh, my Father, enable that we might show forth this great freedom as we get into the nitty-gritty of life. With the trials and temptations that we face. Christ, my Savior, is with me. I am redeemed by his blood. My Redeemer has purchased me out of slavery by the shedding of his own blood. Oh, my Father, enable that we might understand how hard won are these liberties that we enjoy today. And the great price that our Savior paid, that we might rejoice in him and triumph through his blood. So help us, we pray in Jesus' holy name. Amen.